Las Vegas Foreclosure: What about the children?

“The Foreclosure Capital of the U.S.” has unfortunately become common Las Vegas nickname the past few years. We may grit our teeth and accept the realities of foreclosure, but how do children deal with it? And what can you do to help your children get through foreclosure?

If you’re a Las Vegas resident with children, you’re well aware of how much they seem to know without your even telling them. They have a sixth sense when it comes to their parents, honing in on cues you don’t even realize you give them. A slight raise in the tone of your voice. Lack of eye contact. Body language. They instinctively know when something isn’t right.

As a result, an ordeal like foreclosure, which causes great stress to adults, can also of course have a great impact on children going through it. And data suggests that going through foreclosure tends to hurt kids’ performance in school work as well. Especially if the family ends up having to move to a new home, or, even worse, move more than once in a short time period.

It’s important during the foreclosure process to provide a sense of reassurance for children. But how can we do that when it feels like our own lives may be out of control?

Here are 4 things you can do to help your children get through a foreclosure:

1. Be up front. You can level with your kids about what’s going on. In fact, if you can present the information in a relatively simple way with calm in your voice and a sense that you will get through this, they’ll be better able to process everything and adjust. Especially in terms of understanding what kinds of things they will still be able to buy or have and what kinds of things they won’t.

2. Routines. The more you can stick with existing routines–morning routines, weekend routines, bedtime routines, etc.–the better children will be able to cope with the situation. You can even make up new routines. If you used to eat out on Friday nights but want to cut back on expenses, make Friday night into a family cooking night.

3. Stabilize your housing situation as quickly as possible. The sooner you can figure out your next housing situation, the less stress your children will experience. Sure there will be adjustments. But the hardest thing on children is to keep changing homes.

4. Stay in school. Do what you can to keep your kids in school and, if possible, in the same school. School provides a terrific amount of stability and routine. If you do need to move your kids to a new school, do your best to help them keep in touch with old friends, another key source of stability.

While you figure out the best way to help your children, make sure you have an good Las Vegas foreclosure lawyer to help you with your foreclosure. Please know you can contact an experienced Haines & Krieger bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation.

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